Texas Congressman Ron Paul did three times better in the 2012 primary than in 2008. NHPR's Jon Greeenberg sat down with the campaign's state director, Jared Chicoine. Chicoine has a dozen years of electoral work under his belt. He was in Senator Bob Smith's primary battle with John E. Sununu. Chicoine also worked with State Senator Bob O'Dell, and the congressional campaign of Sean Mahoney.

Sitting in a hotel lobby in Bow on the night of the primary, Chicoine told us a bit about the Ron Paul ground game.

Mitt Romney spent his Monday focusing vote-rich southern New Hampshire. He started at a chamber of commerce breakfast Nashua, where a comment he made about choice in health care,

“I like being able to fire people who provide services to me,”

became a late-breaking flashpoint. Democrats and republicans rivals Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman all piled on. So much so that at Romney’s next stop in Hudson he called a press conference, his first since the Iowa caucuses, to defuse the matter.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul drew a crowd of about 450 people at his first event in New Hampshire after the Iowa caucuses. Paul’s promise to curtail foreign military activity drew some of the loudest cheers.

The Texas congressman has nothing if not an enthusiastic following and voters young and old alike responded well to Paul’s signature policies. Especially when he said the imminent danger of a nuclear Iran is exaggerated.

When asked what he would do about Social Security and other entitlements, he said he would protect them.

Bookies take bets on winners and losers. Political junkies follow the news, budgets and campaign strategies to determine the odds. Astrologers follow the candidates destinies as mapped out in the heavens. The Nashua Patch asked astrologer Dorothy Morgan to consult the stars for clues to the outcome of the New Hamsphire primary.

Tea Party voters were expected to play a key role in the 2012 republican presidential primary. But with movement hopefuls Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry low in the polls, and Herman Cain now out of the race, the Tea Party vote remains very much in play. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul may stand most to gain. New NHPR’s Josh Rogers reports.

Attend any NH campaign event with a Tea Party flavor and you will come across more than a few voters like Mark Grenier.

Jon Greenberg is executive editor here at NHPR and representing today for the Politifact New Hampshire’ Partnership, a joint effort that also includes the Nashua Telegraph and the Valley News. You can hear their truth-o-meter tests of candidate statements right here on Word of Mouth.

In this presidential cycle, as in the last, there is no question which Republican candidate has the most ardent supporters. It is Ron Paul, the 76-year-old Texas congressman whose brand of libertarianism often puts him at odds with all his rivals. But with less than seven weeks to go there are signs that Paul could surprise people in the nation’s first primary.

Ron Paul supporters probably wouldn’t like this observation: Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is sitting pretty in New Hampshire. Very pretty.

Ron Paul is in the midst of a two day campaign swing through the Granite State.

The Texas Congressman’s town hall meeting at Keene State College was briefly interrupted by a group of protesters affiliated with Occupy Wall Street.

The protesters used their call-and-response technique to say "there is something wrong with the system" and "we are the 99 percent." When they were done, Ron Paul said "I hope you feel better," and there was laughter and applause. And then he said when it came to the power of big banks, he agreed with the protesters.